[Lorspeaker]

The morning after....reading thru the posts here..n reflecting on what happened yesterday,
cant remember myself getting into a spat of good enjoyment of some music, my feet tapping or what;
....more like a struggle...trying to get a fix on the sound...the divide betw expectations n what i heard. 
Trying to be optimistic...staying open, to be surprised. 
 
Hope u guys have better sessions than me. ..
Might attempt another audition when NO ONE is around.
 
Maybe a V.2 might do the trick....

 

[Makiah S]

  The morning after....reading thru the posts here..n reflecting on what happened yesterday,
cant remember myself getting into a spat of good enjoyment of some music, my feet tapping or what;
....more like a struggle...trying to get a fix on the sound...the divide betw expectations n what i heard. 
Trying to be optimistic...staying open, to be surprised. 
 
Hope u guys have better sessions than me. ..
Might attempt another audition when NO ONE is around.
 
Maybe a V.2 might do the trick....

That doesn't sound fun at all <.< 

 

[MrGuzmanWhite]

   
To me, at least on the first track, there is a heavy bassline that with the Z7's is all compressed into a single monotonous tone and completely dominates the sound. This is the resonance I said in some of my early impressions was really unpleasant, although I heard it initially primarily in the bassline of some jazz albums.

Yeap, exactly, you hear the same I hear. For a $700 headphone, it is unacceptable .

 

[thatBeatsguy]

 
Yeap, exactly, you hear the same I hear. For a $700 headphone, it is unacceptable .

So...Alpha Dog (not Prime) > MDR-Z7 then? 

The Alpha Dog is about $699 IIRC, so that might make a good matchup.

 

[MrGuzmanWhite]

is there a specific song I can focus on? I can only use my cheaper Sony headphones but I can at least see what type of music your finding intolerable and maybe have a glimmer of why.

Any song in this album sounds terrible with the Z7. But if you like try a couple, just try the first and the last as representative tracks. Listen with the Z7, and then try with a well balanced good headphone that can actually resolve sounds across the frequency range, unlike the Z7, and you will hear what I mean.

 

[Maxvla]

If you like an example of how "poor" the MDR Z7 is playing some music, please take a listen to the new album by Bears's Den, named Islands. Fantastic album, here below is the link. This is a great album so I recommend it to anyone, but it serves as an example for the Z7 performance.

http://www.bearsdenmusic.co.uk

Is not that it sounds bad, it is worse, it sounds intolerable. And this is not an album with complex music reproduction.

If anyone takes a listen to this music using the MDR Z7 and thinks that the Z7 is good or great, please share that because then maybe I have a "lemon", a defective unit.

P.S. BTW I listened to this album today with my B&O Beoplay H6 and it sounds great. Then I arrived home to do a new test of the Z7 and my God, my jaw dropped, I could not believe how bad it plays this simple music vs the B&O H6 (or any other decent headphone)

Not going to sign up for spotify, but I looked up their channel on youtube. Listening to the music on my Sony MA900s, which are similar, but even darker than Z7s and it sounds great! I heard the H6 at RMAF and thought it was pretty meh.

 

[dweaver]

Ok used my MDR10R and TPEOS Altone200 and the Songs were decidedly clearer on the Altone200 and worked better technically. The MDR10R also sounded good to my ears but it needed more volume to reach a dynamic balance I liked. At lower volumes the bass definitely was to much. The warmth of the 10R helped create a more relaxed sound which became dull at lower volumes. The vocals are much more distant on The 10R though and this album does much better with a detail oriented headphone/IEM like the Altone200.

I can't say I hated the 10R though I just hear it as a completely different take. The Altone200 is great for when I want to focus on all the detail, the 10R is great for relaxed listening. O also can listen to the 10R at louder volumes more comfortably for a bigger type of listening session.

 

[MrGuzmanWhite]

  when you say intolerable  ... can you describe in what way ?

I will try to describe the sound. The album Island by Bear's Den (stream here) is an album where the band uses background instruments to plan a mosaic of sounds that frame the vocals. Bear’s Den wraps the music in dense reverberation on songs that include keyboards or strings often with low frequency sounds, some of them subtle, but present.
 
A decent headphone (and I have tried several like B&O Beoplay H6, VModa M-80, Sony XBA-2, Beyer T70p, Ety ER4P), will be able to separate the various sounds of the background music while keeping the voices upfront and dominant as it is the singing what drives the melody of the song.
 
When you play this album with the Z7 it highlights all the defects of this can. First, the background mosaic of sounds become a monotone sound where instead of appreciating the beauty of the mixed sounds you just get a constant blur of sound. This is due to the enhanced frequency range of the Z7 from 40-200 Hz that screws up the texture of sounds in the album. In addition, the receded mids in the Z7, due in part to the resonance of the low frequencies and bleed into the mid range, will present the voices lifeless and flat, without any presence, blended with the blurred sounds in the background. In addition, the "polite" high frequencies of the Z7 don't help much to add any spark to the music. So, the result is a blur of monotonic sound with terrible instrument separation, continuous resonance, and lifeless music. On top of this the Z7 gets to do the impossible, it makes good music to feel boring.
 
This is what I describe as intolerable for a $700 can. Any other one of my headphones, with different degree, are able to play this album with a different style between them, but much better than the Z7. 
 
The Z7 is a flawed can that will be forgotten very soon. As soon as the hype passes away it will be remembered as a failed intent by Sony to make an audiophile headphone.
 
I am amazed about anyone who describes this can as an audiophile headphone and claims that it has very good resolution, dynamics and technicalities. I appreciate that we all can have different opinions, and each one's brain and ears integrate the sounds differently, but this is not an audiophile headphone worth its price.
 
And believe me I don't have anything against Sony, I love Sony as a brand and I have several Sony headphones. I also cherish their desired to get serious into High Res audio and make better products for people like us, who get nuts about quality sound. This is what makes the Z7 so disappointing. It is a beautiful headphone, very well crafted, extremely comfortable, made in Japan, a land of good taste for quality sound, and they designed a flawed product. So disappointing.
 
I said enough and I don't want to become the "bad boy" against the MDR Z7, so this may be my last post in this thread. I have the headphone in my home, and gave it a good try, and much to my dislike I will return it. I hate to return things, and I try to convince myself of a single reason to keep it but I can't find any.
 
My last pice of advise. For anyone burning in desire to buy the MDR Z7, please make sure to get it from a vendor with a good return policy, you may need it.

 

[MrGuzmanWhite]

Not going to sign up for spotify, but I looked up their channel on youtube. Listening to the music on my Sony MA900s, which are similar, but even darker than Z7s and it sounds great! I heard the H6 at RMAF and thought it was pretty meh.

Well, your call. I listened to this album using TIDAL (the new streaming just released in the USA, CD quality) and also using iTunes. Both gave the same terrible result. Not sure about the youtube channel, did not try that. Do you actually have the Z7 to try or you are just guessing?

 

[Maxvla]

The Z7 is a flawed can that will be forgotten very soon. As soon as the hype passes away it will be remembered as a failed intent by Sony to make an audiophile headphone.

Just who is it that you are trying to convince?

 

[Maxvla]

Well, your call. I listened to this album using TIDAL (the new streaming just released in the USA, CD quality) and also using iTunes. Both gave the same terrible result. Not sure about the youtube channel, did not try that. Do you actually have the Z7 to try or you are just guessing?

I don't have Z7s, but did listen to them extensively at RMAF. They sound very similar to my MA900s (but better in almost every way), which I brought to the show, and am now listening to with your tracks and making educated guesses. If I wasn't juggling 3 top of the line amps with plans to pick up a Yggdrasil as soon as it's released, I'd probably have a pair myself. I sold my K550s yesterday, so I'm making moves towards Z7s soon.

 

[XERO1]

  I'll point out again that the Z7 likes a lot more volume than it sometimes seems like it'd need. At lower volumes the mid-bass hump completely overwhelms a lot of tracks but as you turn up the volume it seemingly stays the same while all the other frequencies get louder which equalizes the sound a bit.
 

 
It's called the 'Fletcher-Munson curve' and the phenomenon is similar with both loudspeakers and headphones.
 


This is why the Z7's mid-bass hump isn't a total deal-breaker for me (though, I still have yet to hear them) because I tend to listen to my music at higher than average listening levels, so that should help compensate for the somewhat heavy mid-bass and soft highs that the Z7's are reported to have.

 

[Makiah S]

   
It's called the 'Fletcher-Munson curve' and the phenomenon is similar with both loudspeakers and headphones.
 


This is why the Z7's mid-bass hump isn't a total deal-breaker for me (though, I still have yet to hear them) because I tend to listen to my music at higher than average listening levels, so that should help compensate for the somewhat heavy mid-bass and soft highs that the Z7's are reported to have.

I can Confirm that, my LA D5k and LA D2k both sounded better at louder volumes! That and the LA DxK series headphones are in my opionin dark, which makes them rather nice headphones to CRANK up <3 

 

[1337rice]

Keep an eye on NCIX, they had a special on a few days back for $530 but they were on backorder.

 

Wow if ncix does it again I might have to bite...

I would say the X7 is definitely bass heavy compared to the K712. But I did not find it as bass heavy as the XBA-H3 or the RHA T10i which I recently reviewed. It is no where near as bass oriented as any XB model Sony I have ever tried.

 
Yeah, I was the one that posted that link. Still on backorder, which prompted me to e-mail them since Sony got out of backorder already and readily available for purchase. 
Kinda tempted to head to downtown Toronto to see if they have a demo to listen, but I kinda want to surprise myself. 

 

[tseliottt]

 
I will try to describe the sound. The album Island by Bear's Den (stream here) is an album where the band uses background instruments to plan a mosaic of sounds that frame the vocals. Bear’s Den wraps the music in dense reverberation on songs that include keyboards or strings often with low frequency sounds, some of them subtle, but present.
 
A decent headphone (and I have tried several like B&O Beoplay H6, VModa M-80, Sony XBA-2, Beyer T70p, Ety ER4P), will be able to separate the various sounds of the background music while keeping the voices upfront and dominant as it is the singing what drives the melody of the song.
 
When you play this album with the Z7 it highlights all the defects of this can. First, the background mosaic of sounds become a monotone sound where instead of appreciating the beauty of the mixed sounds you just get a constant blur of sound. This is due to the enhanced frequency range of the Z7 from 40-200 Hz that screws up the texture of sounds in the album. In addition, the receded mids in the Z7, due in part to the resonance of the low frequencies and bleed into the mid range, will present the voices lifeless and flat, without any presence, blended with the blurred sounds in the background. In addition, the "polite" high frequencies of the Z7 don't help much to add any spark to the music. So, the result is a blur of monotonic sound with terrible instrument separation, continuous resonance, and lifeless music. On top of this the Z7 gets to do the impossible, it makes good music to feel boring.
 
This is what I describe as intolerable for a $700 can. Any other one of my headphones, with different degree, are able to play this album with a different style between them, but much better than the Z7. 
 
The Z7 is a flawed can that will be forgotten very soon. As soon as the hype passes away it will be remembered as a failed intent by Sony to make an audiophile headphone.
 
I am amazed about anyone who describes this can as an audiophile headphone and claims that it has very good resolution, dynamics and technicalities. I appreciate that we all can have different opinions, and each one's brain and ears integrate the sounds differently, but this is not an audiophile headphone worth its price.
 
And believe me I don't have anything against Sony, I love Sony as a brand and I have several Sony headphones. I also cherish their desired to get serious into High Res audio and make better products for people like us, who get nuts about quality sound. This is what makes the Z7 so disappointing. It is a beautiful headphone, very well crafted, extremely comfortable, made in Japan, a land of good taste for quality sound, and they designed a flawed product. So disappointing.
 
I said enough and I don't want to become the "bad boy" against the MDR Z7, so this may be my last post in this thread. I have the headphone in my home, and gave it a good try, and much to my dislike I will return it. I hate to return things, and I try to convince myself of a single reason to keep it but I can't find any.
 
My last pice of advise. For anyone burning in desire to buy the MDR Z7, please make sure to get it from a vendor with a good return policy, you may need it.

Youre not being the "bad boy". You're saying how much you hate an SUV when you're clearly in the market for a mini scooter. There are different types of headphones and this clearly isn't your type.